We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks

Very good storytelling that kept me engaged throughout and correctly identifies the "hero" as the broken-souled PFC whose motivations stem from truth and morality rather than fame (Assange/Lamo) and power (US government.)

This movie has the best typing sound effects you'll ever hear.

Should be more about the leaks and less about the leakers.

All of the information presented in We Steal Secrets is truly interesting and thought-invoking; unfortunately, it is presented with such bad taste that it is impossible to take the documentary seriously at times. The film fails to make meaning of Wikileaks' history, instead simply telling the viewer what happened. Assange and the subject matter are, nevertheless, enough to carry the documentary for the near entirety of its 2 hour plus run time.

Could've been better as a deeper exploration of the topic itself, but as an analysis of the people involved, it's great.

It was good because it supplied me with info about Assange that many could have hidden.

Viewed November 1, 2017.

Although technically proficient and well researched, the documentary fails on it's story. The documentary is more interested in human stories and backgrounds rather than the leaks themselves. That's a fine topic, but requires streamlining the story to what matters. Why not make the documentary about Bradley Manning's troubled life? Or the main US classified documents release? Or, like the title suggests, the history of Wikileaks and Julian Assange?

Rolls through the wiki-saga and gets to know the faces behind the scenes somewhat. The kinds of people involved are like bait for Gibney, you've got your cross-dressing whistle-blower, a hyper-paranoid wank hacker, a CIA director, a journalist who's family is English aristocracy etc, etc. Takes the gleam off the Assange counter-culture image, but the first one through the gates usually does get bloody.

If you needed this to know that Assange is a wannabe cult leader, you're just slow.

Reasonably well-done compilation of information about Julian Assange, Bradley Manning and Wikileaks not readily available elsewhere. It's also extremely interesting to compare it to Wikileak's annotated transcript, which can be found at http://wikileaks.org/IMG/html/gibney-transcript.html Many of the annotations are welcome corrections, others hair-splitting, like whether Wikileaks "solicits" leaks or not. (Good heavens, why would anyone think THAT??)

great documentary on the motives of the people behind the wikileaks

I'm not quite sure what to say at the moment so I'll write a review at a later point. I'm just so at odds with the two sides to this. It went out of it's way to be both for, and against him, in this film.

I enjoyed this film, it gives a nice perspective of how things developed in Wikileaks, but it doesn't go deep into the meaning and consequences of a, apparently, simple thing as leaking secrets. Also the Bradley Manning story was ok to see an insight of a whistleblower but I don't think is that important in the Wikileaks story as an institution.

Every confict is carried by characters, faces - if you want or not. But a lot of conflicts get to the point they spin ONLY about A person. If you think of youself as a hero you can do everything. Its the same with Assange and his followers. But Gibneys tactfulness end with Bradley Manning gives me a little hope. Manning and his suffering are a symbol of how things are wrong. We live in times where its a problem to have a concience. And that sucks whatever Manning is a hero or a criminal.

Essentially a 'build him up,knock him down' critique of Julian Assange,this doc spends the first half outlining his early life,the formation of WikiLeaks and Bradley Manning's role in its explosion,before turning on the Aussie silver fox,painting him as an over-idealistic,selfish and ultimately hypocritical figure whose actions became increasingly counter-productive.The frank interviews with ex-CIA bigwigs and those who worked closely with both Assange and Manning are insightful and appreciated.